All Bets Are Off

Ryan, Chris and Kish are joined by special guest Keith Gillespie. The former Manchester United youngster became a household name in the mid-nineties starring for Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers whilst in the midst of a gambling addiction. In this episode the 86-cap former Northern Ireland international talks about his addiction as well as the grip the industry has on football today.

Ryan, Chris & Kish are joined by two brave guests as they each speak about the gambling harm that they have lived through. In part one we are joined by Steven, who identifies himself as Black African and moved to the UK at the age of seven; he was once addicted to fixed odds betting terminals. Suhayl, a British Muslim, joins us for part two and tells us about his former relationship with gambling and the impact that this had on his family and career teaching in an Islamic School. This episode talks about how gambling-harm can disproportionately affect ethnicities, cultures and religion, and the need for more research.

Ryan, Chris and Kish are this week joined by Professor Samantha Thomas of Public Health at Deakin University and Matt Zarb-Cousin who runs Clean Up Gambling. In this episode our primary focus was to discuss how best we can protect children and young persons from gambling related harm, discuss some of the research and talk through what needs to change legislatively to halt the rise of gambling addiction among minors

Ryan, Chris, Kelly and Kish welcome guest Benjamin Smile (pseudonym due to legal reasons) to discuss his newly released biography The Long Way Home. For anyone suffering with an addiction, this really is a must read.

In the second half of the show we are joined by co-creators of the soon-to-be-available RecoverMe app, Tejus and Minal. In this section we learned everything about what the app is about, the science and medical research behind it and loads more.

Ryan, Chris and Kish welcome guests Tony Parente and Alex Macey (Gamvisory) to talk through what appears to be systematic exploitation of compulsive gamblers and a whole other bunch of failures from the Operators and those charged in keeping them in check. VIP schemes, KYC & AML failings, NDA's and the Gambling Commission are all discussed. Later in the show we are joined by Matt Blanks as he gives a detailed version of just how hard it is to work in a betting shop whilst having an addiction to gambling, as well as the work he now does with Betknowmore and the up-and-coming Peer Aid project. This service will be up and running soon and so if you are listening in the London area and would like to get involved as a Peer Supporter email [email protected] or message him over on Twitter @MattBlanks4.

Ryan, Chris and Kelly are joined by fourth member of the team Kish who talks about his father's gambling addiction until his sudden passing when Kish was a teenager. We also welcome three very special guests: Chris's father John explains what it's like to see his son battle gambling and alcohol addiction, another guest by the name of John whose son Ryan tragically ended his life at just 27 years of age and Becky whose husband Ben has been clinically diagnosed with a gambling disorder. Becky talks us through the behaviours he displayed - that only hindsight has given her - that she can now link to his gambling addiction.

Kelly hosts this special edition of the podcast to celebrate Women's Week here at All Bets Are off. Kelly is joined by trio of EbE's: Lisa, Sarah and Jean (the latter from BetKnowMore) as they each share their journey's of recovery and discuss a number of topics.

Ryan and Chris welcome special guest James Grimes from The Big Step. In part two of the podcast we answer some questions sent in from our listeners.